110 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION [1776.

subscribed by the freemen of this province, be forthwith printed,
and that forty of the said copies be sent to the committee of observa-
tion for Baltimore county, forty of the said copies to the committee of
observation for the upper district of Frederick county, and the re-
sidue of them in equal proportions to the committees of the several
counties; and the committees aforesaid of Baltimore county and
the upper district of Frederick county, shall cause the said asso-
ciation to be tendered, on or before the first day of April next to
every freeman in the hundreds of their county and district respec-
tively, where the said association hath not been already generally
tendered to the said freeman, to be subscribed by them, according to
the resolutions of the late convention; and every person who shall
not sign the said association at the time of tendering the same to
him, or within ten days thereafter, shall be in the same condition as
if the same had been tendered to him according to the said for-
mer resolutions, and he had refused or neglected to have subscribed
the same; and the committee of observation for each county shall
leave one or more of the association papers in the custody of
some person or persons to be by them respectively appointed, at
some house in their county town, and also at Georgetown and
Hagerstown in Frederick county, and shall give public notice there-
of by advertisements, so that such of the freemen of this province,
who have not done so already, may subscribe the same.

That every freeman within this province who hath not already,
nor before the eleventh day of April next shall have subscribed the
association aforesaid, shall within five days after the said last men-
tioned day, deliver up to the committee of observation for this coun-
ty, all fire-arms, if he hath any, except pistols, and every person
who shall neglect to do the same, may be disarmed by order of the
committee of observation for his county, in like manner as those
who ought to enroll in the militia and refuse to do so, and the arms
of the non-associaters shall and may be disposed of in the same
manner as the arms of those who refuse to enroll in the militia;
and moreover the committee of observation of each county in this
province, may in their discretion award and order any freeman of
this province, not associating as aforesaid, found within their coun-
ty, whether such freeman be a resident of their county or not, to
enter into bond with good and sufficient security, in such penalty
as they may think fit, payable to the president of the convention
for the time being, by name, conditioned, that if such non-asso-
ciator shall behave himself peaceable and quietly in the present
unhappy contest between Great Britain and the colonies; that he
shall not directly or indirectly betray or give intelligence to the